They will play Monday and the 15 games that follow with this thought taunting them: It doesn’t really matter.

Fans and the media will justifiably remain skeptical, yawning, even if the Chargers can ride another win streak into the postseason — as they did in 2006 (10 games), ’07 (six), ’08 (four) and ’09 (11) only to go a combined 3-4 in the playoffs, twice losing their opening game despite possessing the first (’06) or second (’09) seed.

The Chargers have come to be a recurring January nightmare, the talented engine that couldn’t.

For a relative perspective, consider that just five teams in the NFL have won 65 games or more over the past six seasons. The Chargers’ 67 victories rank third in a group that includes Indianapolis (77), New England (73), Pittsburgh (65) and the New York Giants (65).

There is probably no need to point out that the other four teams listed above have won five of the Super Bowls played after those six seasons. There is certainly no need to remind anyone in San Diego that Drew Brees’ New Orleans Saints, who have had just two winning seasons since 2004, won the most recent Super Bowl.

Framing it historically, the Chargers are just the 10th team in NFL history to have gone to the playoffs at least five times over a six-year period and not win at least one Super Bowl in that run.

But, wait, there’s this one thing that must be addressed before everyone stresses over January.

The regular season.

The Chargers have to play 16 games and win enough of them to get into the postseason.

“The only way to change January is to get there,” Philip Rivers said. “You can’t change if you are not in January.”

While it blossoms into big news every fall only to get swept away like leaves come their standard December dominance, the Chargers have started 2-3 in each of Turner’s three seasons as head coach.

Whether it will prove to have any correlation or not, the Chargers have convinced themselves that a strong September can be the catapult to a February finish.

“We can talk about what we haven’t done in January all we want, but one thing we haven’t done is start off very well,” Rivers said. “I think more than anything, we have showed we can finish the regular season strong. It doesn’t mean we will again, but we know how to do that. Let’s get off to a better start.

I mean ultimately, everybody in here understands the perception of, ‘Well, if they don’t do it in January it doesn’t matter.’ But I think we all know that we aren’t guaranteed to get that chance again, but I think it is OK for the mindset to be, ‘How are we going to get that chance again? What do we need to do to get that chance again?’ ”

To that end, there has been a theme to training camp and the preseason. Talk of physicality and setting a tone has dominated conversation after conversation.